One of South Scranton's primary thoroughfares into the downtown will be closed for months.

A vehicle entering the Central Scranton Expressway from Cedar Avenue clipped the concrete beams on the underside of the bridge connecting Moosic and Spruce streets over the expressway and caused enough damage to warrant the bridge's replacement, said James May, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

"We're talking months," Mr. May said.

Each of the eight beams supporting the bridge had concrete broken off, some to the extent that metal support cables within the beams were visible Friday morning.

PennDOT learned of the damage at about 9:30 a.m. Friday and sent out the head bridge engineer for PennDOT's District 4 to inspect the bridge. "He came out and took one look - it was a no-brainer," Mr. May said.

A team from PennDOT's Harrisburg office will begin the process of designing a new bridge that, until Friday morning, was a heavily trafficked entrance into downtown Scranton.

On average, more than 15,000 vehicles travel over the bridge every day, according to PennDOT.

As of Friday night, the expressway on-ramp from Cedar Avenue was open. Motorists can still enter and exit the expressway via Spruce Street. Pittston Avenue can still be accessed from Spruce Street as well.

The closed bridge is now the second bridge over the Central Scranton Expressway in need of replacement. The Harrison Avenue bridge had already been slated for replacement in 2014, Mr. May said.

Local businesses are concerned the closure will affect customer traffic to and from their locations.

Carolyn Catalano, general manager of La Trattoria, 522 Moosic St., said many patrons come from downtown, and the business' delivery drivers use the bridge to get into Center City.

"We're thinking it might be tough for takeouts at night and for regular patrons to get here," Ms. Catalano said.

She said restaurant employees hope customers will continue to frequent La Trattoria, and many people have called about confirming reservations and asking for a different route to get there.

Moosic Street is now the second entrance into downtown Scranton that has been closed off to one of the city's neighborhoods due to a broken bridge.

In March of last year an antiquated drainage system on the West Linden Street bridge caused water to build up behind one of its walls, which resulted in the shifting of material and eventual crumbling of the wall.

That bridge, which provided one of only two direct routes from West Scranton into the downtown area, remains closed pending repairs to the wall. Mike Taluto, also a spokesman for PennDOT, said the contractor must complete that project by December 2013.